X-COM: Enduring Legacy
by Wixeron
Summary: Humanity has survived, adapted and won against extraterrestrial threats even before they leave Earth. Now, with a changed mentality, they took to the stars and would bring about a revolution to the galactic community and inadvertently, change the course of the Cycle.
1. Prologue

**Author's Note: **Hello readers! I'm here with a new story for a XCOM/Mass Effect crossover! Now, this story is inspired by a lot of other XCOM/Mass Effect stories out there such as XCOM: Second Contact, Once Bitten, Twice Shy and among others. A such, you will find some similar plot elements (such as what happens to human after the Ethereal War and Turian Contact War and the like). However, I will be adding my own story elements to make it interesting.

This story also has its own prequel, titled XCOM: Shattered Past, chronicling the first generation of XCOM's trial during the Ethereal War if you guys are interested to read. However, the story is written at the same time as this one and which one I will update depends on my muse and mood so…

* * *

**Prologue – Enduring Legacy**

**...**

"**Those who play with the devil's toys will be brought by degrees to wield his sword."**

**-Buckminster Fuller**

A blue ethereal energy can be seen floating above the planet Earth as if waiting for something. From a distance, it was easy to mistake it for an anomaly in space. However, it was not an anomaly and in fact, it was very much alive.

The blue energy was an alien known as the Ethereal to humans. The alien was from the very same species that had inflicted so much pain on the planet below and its inhabitants. Yet, this Ethereal…was different from the rest of its species.

"Humans…flawed, yet there is so much potential in them. However, in order to harness their true potential, they need to grow on their own. Enough damage in the name of guidance has been done to them by my brethren," the Ethereal, Asaru mused.

On 1962, mankind experienced their First Contact with alien life forms. Unfortunately, it was hostile and lead to war between humans and the invading alien species, whom the humans called The Outsiders. Against all odds, mankind won and managed to drive The Outsiders away and at the same time, kept the whole ordeal a secret from the rest of the world.

However not all aliens were driven away from Earth at that time. Asaru, who was one of the key players in the ordeal, decided to stay and help mankind to prepare for the coming of his brethren.

And come they did. On 2015, his brethren and their slaved alien collective assaulted Earth. The Second Contact proved to be much more destructive and their effect was permanent. Unsurprisingly for Asaru, mankind won. He expected as much, after all, he had lived with them for half a century. He knew them better than his brethren ever did.

However, mankind's victory would be temporary if he didn't intervene for perhaps, the final time. After all, the Uber Ethereal that assaulted Earth was but a piece of a whole. Mankind, as of now, would not survive the full might of the Ethereal Collective.

The Ethereal concentrated his psionic powers and soon, purple aura began to envelop his being. A few seconds later, the psionic cocoon flashed brightly and disappeared in a purple light.

Asaru emerged in a purple flash of psionic energy somewhere outside of the Solar System. In front of him was a huge starship, easily ten times the size of the Temple Ship on Earth. This was the Ethereal's true base.

Asaru then slowly flew towards the ship, contemplating on what he would say to his brethren. Their species unique in that it was divided into two sides. One side was the Ascended and they are the Ethereals that decided to discard their need for the physical plane such as technology and their own bodies. This grants them their pure energy form and strong psionic powers.

This freedom from physical needs and constraints also granted them a different mentality. They do not need to be part of a psionic hive mind or collective for the sake of increasing psionic powers since, they are already strong enough without it. As such, Ascended Ethereals have their own unique individuality. Most Ascended Ethereals made it their mission to help and uplift other species, albeit in a more benevolent and subtle manner as well as without the use of technology.

Although Ascended Ethereals can live forever, they were not immortal. Despite their form, they are incredibly weak without a host and can die from something as simple as a gunshot, as what had happened to Shamash, another Ascended Ethereal.

The other side of the Ethereal species was the complete opposite. They simply called themselves Ethereals. Realizing the weakness of the Ascended form, they rejected it and strive to achieve perfection in both physical and psionic form. It was this drive that made them search for the 'ultimate' species.

And it was this drive that made them cruel and ignorant to the other species that they encountered.

However, Asaru could not bring himself to truly hate his brethren for what they did. They didn't do it entirely for their own selfish need but they were also driven by another force that was far stronger than them.

_The Old Ones._

Asaru reached the ship and its inhabitants of the slaved species turned their attention to him. They didn't do anything however and bowed in fear and respect. Despite the form, they can still recognize an Ethereal. That and his brethren did not wish to end him just yet.

He effortlessly made his way into the center of the ship, where the entire collective of the Ethereal were located. Inside the room, there were thirteen Uber Ethereals surrounding a giant translucent orb filled with psionic energy or rather, the Ethereal's collective minds.

"Ah, Asaru," one of the Uber Ethereal spoke, but it might as well be the entire Ethereal that spoke to him. "We figured that you'd be involved with the New Ones somehow,"

"Yes, although I have been involved with them for much longer than you had," Asaru replied.

The Uber Ethereals laughed together. "And what was the result? Half a century with them and yet, nothing! But We, We have accomplished far more in such a short span of time than you have!"

This time, it was Asaru's turn to laugh. "Are you sure that I have achieved nothing? Surely that you didn't think that their aptitude for The Gift is just a coincidence?"

The Uber Ethereal was silent but Asaru could feel their glare at him. "What have you done with the New Ones?"

Asaru smirked. "What have I done indeed?"

The Ethereal Collective growled. It wouldn't do well for them if the New Ones' psionic strength or Gift were only because of Asaru. For all they knew, only those that Asaru had interacted would have psionic capabilities and the rest were…useless.

After extensive research on the humans, they found out that not all humans exhibit the potential for psionic capabilities.

"However, I have valuable knowledge I wish to share with you. Knowledge that would change everything," Asaru said and the Ethereal was silent again.

"The Gift isn't just about the physical form, or even mental, but rather the _essence _of the individuality," Asaru started. "The Gift can be embraced as well as rejected and it is why most of the humans you have studied so far showed no aptitude for The Gift,"

"Are you saying that those humans rejected The Gift?" The Ethereals asked.

"More like they did not know that the Gift was possible to them. Don't you find it strange that the one with the strongest Gift was with the resistance force, and not the civilians?" Asaru answered.

"The XCOM as the New Ones called it," An Uber Ethereal stated.

Asaru nodded. "They were exposed to the concept of the Gift and subconsciously wished it for themselves. Now, what would happen if they were to…reject it?"

"Preposterous! If it was so easy to embrace the Gift, we would have found the perfect specimen a long time ago! And yet, only a select few have them!" The Ethereal Collective said in almost a scream.

"That was because of your own doing," Asaru said calmly.

"What?! Explain!" every Uber Ethereal spoke in anger.

"Think about it, the Sectoids have the Gift because they have the brilliance to comprehend it and wished it for themselves. Your loyalist Thin Men have the brilliance to understand…and fear it, hence they rejected it. Their loyalty to you is more of fear than anything else," Asaru explained and he could feel the glare from the Ethereals again.

"The Mutons…you were so eager of their potential, that you tested them too early. They were only cavemen, barely intelligent enough to count past their toes when you descended upon them. As a result, their growth as a thinking species capable of embracing The Gift was stunted. As for the rest, the ones that were more mechanical than organic…in your drive to eliminate the weakness of the organic, you deprived them of their higher thoughts and thus, their capacity for The Gift," Asaru stated.

"The other races," Asaru gestured to the door behind him, indicating the slaved alien races. "Have the potential for The Gift…but it is your own doing that denied them that,"

"LIES!" the whole ship shook and Asaru shuddered as well.

Asaru sighed. This was why he couldn't truly hate his brethren. They were misguided, yes, but with good intent. They were afraid of the Old Ones and wanted to prepare the other races to face them. They believed that in order to do so, one must have the right physical and mental aptitude. In their search, they've wronged other races, that was true, but they believed that those species would fared better under their Collective than the Old Ones'. And they truly believe that once they have found the perfect specimen, it would be their salvation and vindication for what they have done.

Unfortunately, they also believed it was their burden to face the Old Ones. Thus, when they have found the perfect specimen, they would not ask them to face the Old Ones, but instead, they would take the number of bodies required to face the threat.

"The fault is not entirely yours but mine as well as the others," Asaru said, referring to the other Ascended that ignored their Ethereal brethren's actions. "And so, I would not turn a blind eye again. I've come with an advice; leave the New Ones alone,"

The Ethereal Collective was silent and Asaru took this chance to continue.

"If you claim them now, you would only destroy any potential they have. You've done enough for them. Instead, let them grow on their own. Let them expand their minds and soon, the entirety of the New Ones will be able to embrace The Gift. And when they have matured, only then I suggest you approach them, politely," Asaru said and the Ethereal Collective laughed.

"Do you think they would just easily accept us? After all we have done to them?"

Asaru smiled. "When the right time comes, yes. Besides, humans do not like to be forced to do something against their will. If you force your will…your Gift against them when they have their own…" Asaru let the implications linger.

"Instead, if you cooperate with them…imagine what could be accomplished! An Ascended with an Awakened Human!" Asaru said rather excitedly. The rest of the Ethereals doesn't seem to share the sentiment however.

Asaru pushed on. "I have shared bodies with a lot of humans even before they were aware of the Gift. You've heard of the New One's first contact, correct? Of what I and a handful of humans managed to accomplish…"

The Ethereal Collective was silent as they contemplated the thought. They've known about humanity's first contact. At that time, Asaru used a human as his host (without the human's knowledge) and fought against the invasion. That Asaru and the human became a one man army and was almost unstoppable.

They have also heard of how Asaru's host threatened to not only destroy himself, but other human resistance when he learned the truth. Just because he refused to be a 'slave' to others.

Humans are stubborn. The New One's action proved that. Perhaps Asaru had a point?

The silence continued and Asaru knew that his message has been made. "I've said what is on my mind and so I will take my leave. Farewell, my brethren," Asaru said and disappeared in a psionic flash, leaving the Ethereal Collective to their own thoughts.

Then, an Uber Ethereal raised its hand and a holographic model of Earth appeared and The Ethereal Collective could only stared at it in silence.

**…**

**...**

**XCOM Database **

Note: Most of the records from the old XCOM Initiative of 1962 has been heavily redacted and no unedited copies are available. As such, many crucial information such as dates are not available and made the entire file, vague at best.

**- The First Contact War**

On 1962 [exact date unknown], Earth was attacked by extraterrestrial aliens called The Outsiders. The Outsiders wished to invade and conquer Earth and began their campaign with the United States as their first target. In response to the invasion, the United States activated the XCOM project which originally was created to combat the threat of communism during the Cold War. The XCOM project then changed its purpose to combat the alien threat, acquire their technology and erase the fact that the alien invasion ever happened in the first place.

After 3 months, the XCOM Initiative managed to fulfill its objective with great effect, especially in erasing the truth of the invasion to the point that when the second alien invasion (The Ethereal War) occurred 50 years later, the public believed that it was the first. Only with the reveal of the XCOM Initiative to the public (after the Ethereal War) and the digging of old files did the truth was revealed.

The reveal of the First Contact War served to increase XCOM's popularity, although some speculate that it was a propaganda by the XCOM.

**- Ethereals**

During the First Contact War, a collective of alien species was involved in attack against humanity. Although most of them were used as foot soldiers and their impact to the war was minimal at least, one alien species in particular was the key component in the war. The alien species was the Ethereals, a creature made of pure energy and capable of psychic feats known as psionics. The Ethereals are incredibly powerful in regards of their psionic capabilities, however, they are weak physically and can be killed with a single bullet or even a knife.

In the course of the war, only two were encountered and played key roles in the war. The first was Shamash, which was used to power the Outsider's command network system called the Mosaic. The second was Asaru who sided with humans and used an XCOM agent as a host. This wasn't known until late in the war however.

An Ethereal with a symbiotic relationship with a human host can result in a powerful being. The Ethereal's weakness is reduced to a certain extent (their physical strength depends on the host) and the human host gained psionic powers. However, it is unsure of who is in control in this relationship. With a limited recorded case of the symbiotic relationship, it is not possible to make sure as of right now.

However, during the second alien invasion or The Ethereal War, it is revealed that there are two subspecies of the Ethereal race. The first is the Ethereal in pure energy form called the Ascended Ethereals. Fortunately this subspecies of Ethereal is not many, chose to act alone and are rather benevolent if, their action is to be believed.

The second subspecies is known as the 'normal' Ethereals. They prove to be the complete opposite to their Ascended counterparts. They have an atrophied body (their original body), which made them more resilient, their numbers are more numerous and they are malevolent in nature since they are the mastermind behind the second alien invasion.

The intent of both Ethereal subspecies mirrors each other but with different result. The Ascended Ethereals wish to uplift alien races in a less direct way and the 'bodyjacking' of the uplifted species is not their end goal. The Ethereals however, forcibly uplifts alien races and once a suitable race has been found, they would seize control of their body.

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**Author's Note: **Alright, hope this one managed to snag your interest! Read it and tell me what you think!

**Read and Review!**


	2. Codex Index

**Author's Note: **This is not a chapter but an index for all the codex that's going to appear in the story. Makes it easier for the readers search for specific information. As the story progress, this 'index' will be updated periodically.

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**Database Index**

**A**

**Alien nanomachines - **Chapter 1

**+ Melds - **Chapter 1

**...**

**E**

**Ethereals - **Prologue

**...**

**F**

**First Contact War – **Prologue

**...**

**P**

**Psionic - **Chapter 2

**+Psion - **Chapter 2

**+Psionite - **Chapter 2

**...**

**S**

**Spaceships and Category - **Chapter 1

**+ Colonization Spaceship Category - **Chapter 1

**++ Colony ship Class - **Chapter 1

**++ Seed ship Class - **Chapter 1


	3. Chapter 1

**Author's Note: **Alright, first chapter! I'm quite surprised actually. I already got 9 reviews and 69 follows for this story! That means I have quite the expectation to keep up, huh? Alright, on to it!

**High Captain**: The Uber-Ethereals in this fic didn't enslave his other brethren. The normal Ethereals have mentality similar to the Geth in that there are many minds inside the hive mind. They also operate in the same way in that they have consensus on what to do (mostly the big stuff). So the decision for the normal Ethereals to do what they do is a majority decision. So there's no slaving between the Ethereals. The reason why there's the Uber and non-Uber is because of role assignment and power difference (the Uber acts as leaders to a division of Ethereals). Meanwhile, the Ascended Ethereals since they do not rely on tech, thinks that they won't be targeted by the Reapers and decided to go frolicking around the universe, sort of.

So hope that clears it up!

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**Chapter 1 – Avenger Aftermath**

**9th January 2016**

**Operation Avenger**

**XCOM HQ**

Everyone in the mission control watched with bated breath as the Strike team dealt the killing blow to the Uber Ethereal, the alien that was responsible for the invasion on Earth. The alien screamed in agony before it was consumed by a purple flash of psionic burst and at that moment, everyone knew that humanity has won and broke into cheers.

Their cheers was cut short however, as the Strike team's camera feed showed that the Temple Ship was shaking heavily and so was the XCOM HQ. Something was wrong.

"What the hell is happening!?" Bradford asked and immediately, XCOM's lead scientist, Dr. Vahlen, who was busy checking her datapad, answered.

"The ship itself is behaving like a dying star…becoming a black hole," she immediately gave Bradford a fierce glare. "At this distance, the Earth will be consumed,"

XCOM's Commander, Marcus Shaw slammed a fist on the railing and cursed. The usually stoic and stone cold commander finally let out his frustration show in front of everyone. "Dammit! After all we've been through, it's just going to end like this!?"

Every XCOM personnel became quiet and didn't panic like most people would as the inevitable destruction was closing on them. They've grown accustomed to loss and even though this might be their greatest loss, they accept it.

Suddenly, a voice could be heard from the intercom. "Guys, what do you know, turns out the ship is controlled using a psi device. I guess the psionic death burst from the Uber Ethereal set something off within the ship,"

Dr. Vahlen's eyes widened at this. "Saif!"

"Hey there VV," Dr. Vahlen looked irritated at having her personal nickname being used on a professional channel. However, she realized that for Saif to do so meant that something was going to happen, and she would most likely not going to like it.

"I think I can do something...but I'm not sure if I can come back…" Saif said.

Dr. Vahlen looked furious and put a hand on her stomach for a moment before she closed her eyes and calmed down. She then nodded before opening her eyes again. "I understand,"

"…I know you would. The both of you…take care alright?" Saif said and Dr. Vahlen could only nodded in silence with teary eyes.

"Commander," Saif addressed the leader of XCOM. "Thanks for everything, for not giving up on me,"

Commander Shaw nodded. "Thank you for everything you've done, Saif. You will not be forgotten," The Commander then saluted to the hologlobe and everyone mirrored his actions even if Saif couldn't see the gesture.

"Well, this is it, goodbye everyone,"

Everyone could only watch in silence as the Temple Ship began to move upwards. They knew what was going to happen, Colonel Saif 'Ender' Asim, one of humanities finest warriors and the strongest recorded psionic human would bring the ship away from Earth where hopefully, it would do less damage.

Seconds felt like an eternity as the image of the Temple Ship began to rose higher and higher until…it suddenly stopped. It wasn't just the ship that stopped but also the earthquakes that threatened the base.

"What? What's going on?" Bradford asked again and Dr. Vahlen ran through her datapad again.

"It's…the ship has been stabilized!" Dr. Vahlen answered before a voice could be heard again.

"Uh…HQ, I dunno how I did it, but I think I managed to make the ship not to turn into a black hole somehow, heh," Saif said sheepishly and after hearing those words, everyone cheered again.

"Big Sky, return to Ender to pick him up," Commander Shaw ordered.

"Roger HQ, Big Sky turning back to pick up the package," Big Sky, the Skyranger's pilot replied.

"Ah heck no! Why would I want to get on that small ship when I have my own ship that's bigger and better?" Saif said and everyone laughed.

**…**

After a near total destruction of the world, the public was in a state of confusion as to what actually had transpired that day. At first they thought that perhaps the alien invader was launching their superweapon to finally get rid of Earth. And then only to see the ship rose to the sky and to suddenly stop can be confusing to everyone that wasn't XCOM.

Fortunately, a few hours later a worldwide announcement by the President of United States declared that an elite strike force had managed to assassinate the alien's leader and the invasion was repelled. Earth has survived and Humanity has won.

At that day, January 9th become the worldwide national holiday known as Victory Day.

However, not everything turn out for the better. Even though the leader of the aliens, the Uber Ethereal and by that extension, every Ethereal has been eliminated, the rest of the invasion force wasn't. Suddenly left without a leader, the rest of the alien species was directionless and they were free to do whatever they wanted. Unfortunately, their new found freedom was short lived.

This was because every alien species on earth has been tampered heavily for war that they knew nothing else. Each alien species, without their masters to care for them were doomed to destroy themselves.

The Sectoids, since they were all clones from the same Sectoid, had no genetic diversity to reproduce naturally, even if they have the means to do so. Thus, every Sectoid left on Earth was the last of their generation and were doomed to extinction. Even if they didn't die naturally, their behavior only accelerated their deaths. Sectoids were smart but they were also greedy, coward and cruel. They would use their psionic powers to manipulate humans to their advantage, often at the expense of the surrounding humans.

This didn't sit well for the humans.

…

A Sectoid can be seen running into an alleyway, only to face with a dead end. It turned around to face the angry mob that had chased it there. The Sectoid pointed its plasma gun at the crowd but the weapon didn't respond and the alien knocked the weapon a few times to no avail.

Ever since XCOM had managed to capture the Temple Ship, they had managed to activate a failsafe function that disabled all alien weaponry on Earth, except for the XCOM's own weapons.

The alien didn't gave up however and send a purple stream at a human. The affected human suddenly screamed for a moment before attacking his own kind. The crowd of humans knew this and three humans grabbed the mind controlled human while the rest converged on the Sectoid with makeshift weapons.

The Sectoid could only screeched in horror as it was beaten to death.

**…**

The Thin Men, despite what had happened, were still loyal to their past masters. The rest of the Thin Men gathered and mounted an invasion to reclaim the Temple Ship. Unfortunately, the Thin Men was only able to arm themselves with 21st century firearms, which was ineffective against the XCOM defenders.

As such, it became a one-sided massacre.

**…**

"You know, this is damn funny!" Matthew 'Alecto' Hawkins, an XCOM Sniper said happily to his squadmates while he was shooting a Thin Man on the head with his plasma pistol.

"What's so funny, Alecto?" Anette Durand, an XCOM heavy asked while moving down hordes of Thin Men with her heavy plasma.

"Well, at the start of the war, our weapons were useless against them. We might as well be throwing rocks at them! But now, oh how the tables have turned!" Alecto replied as he casually shot another Thin Man while hundreds of bullets deflected off his Titan Armor.

Anette gave an insane grin under her helmet.

"Payback's a bitch, huh?" Fatima 'Tisiphone' Tariq said and everyone agreed.

Another member of their team, Said 'Megaera' Tariq decided to get up close and personal with his victims and without the use of his weapon, preferring the increased strength given by the Titan Armor.

Said tackled the nearest Thin Man, pinning it to the ground before unleashing a storm of blows at the hapless alien. The Thin Man spit poison in retaliation but it was a futile effort as the Titan Armor protected its wearer from poison.

Soon, the alien's head was reduced to a pulp and Said rose to his feet again before launching to another target.

**…**

The Mutons and Floaters lasted a bit longer than the rest of the alien species. Fortunately, they didn't have form any organized movement, instead, choosing to wreak havoc in an uncontrolled manner. It took a while but over time, most of the Mutons and Floaters that weren't killed by the military or XCOM starved to death.

Fortunately for humanity, the Chryssalids wasn't much of a problem as the Ethereals deploy them in smaller numbers compared to the rest of the alien species. Furthermore, the Ethereals had a countermeasure in case the Chryssalids went out of control in the form of an airborne virus. XCOM then immediately began producing the countermeasures in the form of gas grenades.

Meanwhile, the rest of the cybernetic invasion troops such as the Sectopods, Cyberdisks and drones were promptly disabled at the same time when XCOM disabled the alien weaponries.

And just like that in six months, the genocide of every alien species was complete which, according to a very few minority, was unfortunate. Dr. Vahlen had said that given time, it would be possible to revert the damages that has been done to the alien species by the Ethereals. However, time they did not have and even then, humanity might not even want to help the aliens as their xenophobia was still strong.

With the alien threat on Earth was truly eliminated, humanity can then began their first step towards a better future; unification.

**…**

When the XCOM Initiative was reactivated, all of the person involved knew that the organization's secrecy was important to ensure its smooth operation and survival. Thus, when the alien threat was over and it seemed that everything was going back to normal, all XCOM personnel knew that their accomplishments wouldn't be revealed to the public, much like their predecessors.

When the President of United States declared six months ago that an 'elite strike force' was the one that ended the Ethereal threat on Victory Day, the world wanted to know more about their heroes. Of course, XCOM personnel knew that the U.S. President would most likely claim that it was an 'American Team' that did the honorable job. After all, wasn't that how it always goes in movies?

Imagine to their surprise the U.S. President revealed to the public the existence of the XCOM Initiative, claiming that it would dishonor the sacrifices that XCOM had made. Plus, it wasn't like what XCOM did was so bad that their reveal would send the world into chaos anyway.

If anything, the reveal of the XCOM Initiative highlighted an important point; that XCOM was a joint effort. XCOM and by that extension, Earth and Humanity could not have survived without a combined effort. Following the reveal, the Prime Minister of Japan proposed for a unified Earth, saying that it was time to stop thinking small and start thinking big. It was time to stop thinking about one own nation and instead, start thinking about the Earth and possibly, beyond.

Of course, as expected, not every nation on Earth agree. The reason wasn't as selfish as most people would think. They were afraid of giving total control to a government that, should it became corrupt, there won't be any entity that could serve as a counterbalance. However, the Prime Minister of Japan was ready, stating that each country wasn't required to relinquish total control, but rather to provide support in the same manner as they did for XCOM.

In other words, where XCOM is a joint military project, the 'Alliance' would be a joint governing entity. Nations that were involved would still retain their sovereignty (to a certain extent, as long as it doesn't endanger the Alliance), receive all the technological advancements made and voting power to control the actions of the Alliance. The Alliance then would receive support in various form as well as authority on matters on the galactic stage (as well as on the nations should it is required). In short, the nations of Earth would still be 'divided' but at the same time, united.

At that, almost every nation agreed with the Alliance, while the rest that didn't would eventually join a few years later, resulting in a unified humanity. The Alliance served as the governing body while the XCOM Initiative was absorbed to become a part of its military branch.

With the unification complete, the next step for humanity was towards the stars. Realizing the dangers of 'putting all their eggs in one basket' where in this case, the basket was Earth, humanity needed more worlds to call their own. And to do that, they would need to master the tools that were available to them.

**…**

**17th November 2016**

**Ethereal Seed Ship 'Pandora's Box'**

**Hangar Bay**

An XCOM Skyranger can be seen landing gracefully inside the alien ship. The plane then opened its rear hatch to reveal a cameraman and a reporter. The duo quickly got off the plane and made their way towards a man that was walking towards them.

"Dr. Shen! Hello! Good to meet you!" the reporter greeted and extended her hand at the engineer.

"It's good to meet you as well," Dr. Shen said and shook her arms.

"I am Laura Adrien from CNN," Laura introduced herself. She had shoulder length blonde hair with blue eyes and wore a brown trench coat and underneath it was a simple attire of blue jeans, red shirt and vest. "And this is my cameraman, Nick Hansen," Laura gestured at the cameraman, who gave Dr. Shen a curt wave.

"Hello," he promptly said before focusing on the large camera he was shouldering. Nick had brown hair with black eyes and was wearing a red hat, blue shirt and black jeans.

"If you are ready, we can begin the tour," Dr. Shen said and Laura nodded and turned to face Nick before nodding to her partner as well.

"Alright, we will begin recording in 5…4…3…2…1," Nick said and Laura smiled brightly.

"Hello everyone, I am Laura Adrien and I am inside the spaceship that once served as the command center for the alien invasion. And today we will be given a tour inside the ship to take a glimpse at its secrets. Here with me is my guide, Dr. Shen, the Chief Engineer of XCOM." Laura said and turned towards Dr. Shen. "How are you doing, Dr. Shen?"

Dr. Shen smiled. "I'm doing well, thank you,"

"Before we start with the tour, can you tell us a bit about the ship, Dr. Shen?" Laura asked and Dr. Shen chuckled.

"Well, back then, this ship was categorized as the Temple-class ship. We even named it the Temple Ship. Now, it is categorized as the Seed ship and called the Pandora's Box," Dr. Shen started and Laura raised an eyebrow.

"Seed ship? What does it mean?" Laura asked and Dr. Shen began walking, prompting the reporter and her cameraman to follow him.

"That's because this ship is very much like a seed. It has almost everything necessary to sustain itself and 'grow', so to speak. Usually, vehicles such as cars, planes and ships can only travel for a certain period of time before they require maintenance and resupply at specialized locations. This limits their operational period and range. The Seed ship however, does not need to…'return to base', so to speak as it functions like a base itself. It is self-sustaining and provided that it has access to raw materials, it can operate indefinitely," Dr. Shen explained and Laura nodded.

"I see. So I take it that this is the heart of the alien invasion?" Laura asked and Dr. Shen chuckled again.

"It is the heart alright, but not just for the invasion. Like I've said before, the Seed ship can 'grow'. It can manufacture almost everything. A single Seed ship with enough resources and time, can create not just an invasion force, but whole civilizations," Dr. Shen answered.

"So that means that…"

"This ship will be our key to the stars," Dr. Shen said with a smile.

"That is interesting. However, there are some that doesn't see it that way, claiming that alien technology is evil and should be left alone. There are people that wants humanity to be 'pure' of alien influence. What is your opinion on that, Doctor?" Laura asked and Dr. Shen sighed.

"A tool is neither good nor evil. A supposedly 'good' tool can be harmful if used the wrong way and an 'evil' tool can be beneficial if used well. In the end, it is the user that is either good or evil, not the tool. Take XCOM for example. If we had remain 'pure' like some people suggested, we wouldn't be victorious. It is true that alien technology was used to harm us, but yet, it is also what brought us our victory," Dr. Shen explained.

"That is true. So I take it that is why this ship is called the Pandora's Box?" Laura asked with a grin and Dr. Shen nodded.

"Ah…yes. The box that was given to Pandora that contained all the evils of the world. This ship does look that way, doesn't it? But, inside Pandora's Box also contained _hope. _And that, is what we are searching for inside this _box_," Dr. Shen said with a smile.

**…**

A few months later, Laura with her cameraman, Nick, was standing in front of a house. Laura checked her clothing and was dusting of invisible dust before she cleared her throat.

"So how do I look?" she asked.

"Beautiful as usual," Nick grinned and Laura flashed a nervous smile. Nick noticed this and gave her an assuring pat. "Hey, don't worry, you got this. What's gotten you so nervous anyway? You're acting like this is the first time you're interviewing someone,"

"Most people I've interviewed aren't _legends of legends!" _Laura said in a whisper.

"Ah, right, the Victory couple," Nick said. "Well, suck it up! This is your once in a lifetime chance!"

"I know-"

Suddenly, the door to the house opened to reveal a man with a lean build, short black hair and blue eyes. The man was Saif 'Ender' Asim, the legendary XCOM soldier that ended the Ethereal threat and one of the most powerful psionic on Earth.

The sudden opening of the door startled the reporter and cameraman, causing Laura to drop her microphone and Nick his camera. Before the expensive equipment could hit the floor however, a purple globe of energy engulfed them, causing them to float back to their owners.

Laura and Nick could only gape with shock until the equipment floated back into their hands. Their shock was short lived as Saif spoke to them.

"Well, are you going to do the interview or not?" Saif asked and Laura immediately regained her composure.

"Sir Saif! I'm Laura Adrien and this is Nick Hansen. We're here to interview you and your wife," Laura said and Saif nodded.

"You'll have to interview us separately I'm afraid and you'll interview Victoria first. I have to take care of our baby," Saif said and Laura nodded.

"I understand. Oh and congratulations on the birth of your baby!" Laura said happily and Saif smiled before he invited them into the house.

The pair then trailed behind Saif as they entered the house and Laura could see a woman sitting on a couch. She was holding and entertaining a giggling baby.

"VV, the interview crew is here. Come on, give me Eliza and you'll do yours first," Saif said.

"Alright El, mommy has to do something. We'll play again later, okay?" the woman said and planted kisses on the black haired and blue eyed baby. The baby then let out a happy squeal, causing her mother to laugh before being taken away by her father.

"Come on, little El, its father-daughter time," Saif said and Eliza let out another happy squeal before the both of them went to the other part of the house. The woman then got up to her feet and turned her attention to them.

"Hello! I am Laura Adrien and this is my cameraman, Nick Hansen. We're from CNN," Laura introduced herself.

"I'm Victoria Asim Vahlen," the woman introduced herself and both woman shook hands before Victoria gestured them to sit.

"First of all, before we start, I just want to say congratulations on the birth of your baby. She's adorable!" Laura said and Victoria smiled.

"Thank you. Her name is Eliza. She is adorable and quite spirited as well. It must be from her father," Victoria said and Laura giggled.

"Alright, we're ready," Nick said and Laura nodded in response towards him before turning back to Victoria. Victoria nodded as well and Laura cleared her throat to start the interview.

"I am Laura Adrien and today I have the opportunity to interview one of the heroes during the Ethereal War, Dr. Victoria Asim Vahlen. She is the Chief Scientist of XCOM and currently spearheading the research on Psionics," Laura started. "How are you Dr. Vahlen?"

"I'm doing well," Victoria replied and Laura nodded.

"That's good to hear. Now, we have a lot of questions to ask but first let us start with something a bit personal. I hope you don't mind?" Laura asked and Victoria raised an eyebrow before replying with a 'sure'.

"You and your husband is quite popular nowadays. People has even given you a variety of nicknames such as Dr. Victoria 'Victory' Vahlen, this is before your marriage of course," Laura said to Victoria and she only shook her head in amusement. "And there's even nicknames for your relationship with your husband such as the 'Victory Couple' or 'The Goddess of Victory and her Sword'. What's your opinion on the matter?"

"That is quite a mouthful," Victoria said with a smile. "I must say most of the nicknames are spot on," Victoria referred to her name which meant victory and her husband's name, Saif Asim which translates to sword and guardian respectively. "Although I'm not sure why people are so interested in us. I'm just a researcher and Saif is a retired soldier. We're not artists or sports players,"

"Well that's true but considering the unusual circumstances about what had happened, people's interests are changing," Laura said, referring to the alien invasion and XCOM's victory which, combined with Saif's 'special ability' made the whole ordeal sound as if it was from a movie. "Plus, added to the fact that the two of the world's top heroes falling in love with each other…nothing stir up the media like a celebrity's love story,"

Victoria sighed. "I suppose although I'm not sure whether I could be considered one of the world's top heroes,"

"Your research is what allowed XCOM to succeed. Without the advancements in technology, we could not have won," Laura said and Victoria shook her head.

"Saying that all the advancements we've made during the invasion solely to be my work is wrong. A lot of them were discovered by my colleague. I merely helped and directed them in the required direction," Victoria explained.

"That is true. But you've made your own discoveries as well such as the genetic modifications and currently the psionics," Laura continued and Victoria nodded.

"That and among other things," Victoria said, remembering the alien interrogations with a fond smile. Laura raised an eyebrow before Victoria gestured for her to continue.

"Now for the next question. After the alien invasion, mankind's technologies experienced a 'sudden leap' to the point that we have entered a technological singularity. A lot of people has voiced their concern that we are not ready for such world changing and _species _changing discovery such as the Meld and psionics. What are your thoughts on the matter?"

Victoria's was about to reply when Saif emerged with a tray of drinks and snacks in his hand. "Sorry, forgot to get you guys these," Saif said and placed the tray on the table in front of the couch.

"Thank you dear," Victoria said with a smile and Laura thanked him as well. Saif returned the gesture and went back to the kitchen. Victoria then went to pour the tea into the cups while at the same time, pondering her answer.

A technological singularity or singularity is a moment in technological development beyond which things are incomprehensible to anyone who came before. Predictions of what life will be like after a Singularity are by definition impossible — the nature of human life and even the concept of intellect may change completely.

A 'soft' singularity is when the singularity isn't too radical. For example, the creation of the Internet. Before it was created, the concept of a vast network that not only contain almost every human knowledge available, but also transfer information instantly was mind boggling. To the people living a few hundred years in the past, the Internet might as well be a magical library created by a wizard.

A 'hard' singularity is when the changes is very large and has the potential to 'end' humanity. For example, if there is a technology that allows every human to become a psionic, then 'normal' human would become extinct. Psionic humans would then be literal wizards to those that were before them. Heck, psionic humans can even be classified as a different type of species!

Of course, psionic humans to Victoria wasn't a bad thing. The excessive usage of Meld however…

"Before the invasion, all of our advancements are from our own efforts. We build from scratch, make mistakes that change our perspective along the way and in time, we came to understand and master what we've created," Victoria said while drinking her tea. "Now however, most of the technologies are from the aliens. We are like a child that is given a loaded gun instead of a toy to learn,"

"So yes, we were not ready to receive these technologies," Victoria continued. "However, life is not about whether or not we are ready to accept its 'gift' but rather, how we would use it,"

"Like making lemonades from the lemons that life gave you?" Laura said and Victoria nodded.

"Correct. The technology are here and so it will be a waste not to use it. The issue right now is to master it instead of letting it master us," Victoria said and Laura nodded.

"Next question. Many people especially the private sector are questioning the Alliance's and by that extension, XCOM's decision on limiting the circulation of the technologies gained during the war. Technologies such as the directed energy weapons and Meld. What is your opinion on the matter," Laura asked.

"Like I said before, we have to master these technologies and part of mastery is to know their limits and disadvantages," Victoria sighed and put her cup of tea on the table. "Most people only see the advantages of the technology and turn a blind eye to its disadvantages. For example, directed energy weapons are very powerful, that I admit. However, it is so powerful in fact that it is hyper lethal against almost everything. A gun that uses gunpowder could not penetrate through a wall. A plasma gun can pierce through it and more. Imagine if it is used in law enforcement? Against our own kind?"

Laura shuddered at the thought and Victoria continued. "Now about Meld, I can say with certainty that it is by far the most dangerous alien tech we've discovered and yet, we still didn't understand it completely. For all we knew, there could be hidden functions that could activate after a certain time or something. Would you be comfortable in having that kind of technology in your body?"

Laura shook her head. "Not really. I'd give it at least another decade before I give it a try,"

"A good idea," Victoria said.

"Now for the next question. Currently, you're research is focused on the field of psionics. Can you tell us a bit about psionics?" Laura asked and Victoria smiled.

"Finally! Something that I can truly talk about!" Victoria said excitedly. "Well, psionics is simply put, the _power of thought_ or the power of the mind. It is the _literally, _the ability to affect reality as well as the mind of others with just our brain," Victoria tapped her head.

"With just our brain? No device is required?" Laura asked.

"A device is just a tool and tools exists to help the user, not replace them. While there is psionic devices, their purpose is only to enhance what is already there," Victoria answered and Laura nodded.

"Now, of all that had happen to humanity in recent times, many agree that the subject of psionics is the most…ludicrous of all," Laura asked the question and Victoria raised an eyebrow at her. "Many, especially scientists that were not involved with XCOM still find it hard to believe the concept of psionics. What do you think about the matter?"

Victoria chuckled. "Well, I wouldn't blame them. And I agree with you. Of all the discoveries we've made, psionics has to be the least understood and mind boggling. XCOM has the best psionics on Earth and yet, the very same people barely understood just what is _psionics_. But, like the alien techs, we are in the process of mastering it and I'm confident that it will bear great results,"

"I see. However, there are scientists that are not involved with XCOM that want to debunk psionics, citing that psionics cannot happen as it violates the law of physics and it is just another effect from the alien technology and not a power directly from the human brain. What do you have to say to these scientists?" Laura asked and Victoria lightly laughed before giving her a grin.

"Of course those scientists aren't from XCOM. Every XCOM scientists has already accept psionics. Let me tell you something, XCOM were given the best and brightest minds in the world. The fact that those scientists weren't with XCOM says a lot about their capabilities, no?" Victoria said and Laura flashed a nervous smile.

"And I have to wonder, are they really scientists and researchers? The role of a scientist and researcher is not to decide what can and cannot happen. That is just arrogant. Newton's Law of Motion is a law based on Newton's observation of the world and not because the world should work according to his whim," Victoria said.

"Our role is to learn how things work, no matter how improbable it might seem. If it already happen in front of our eyes, then it is not improbable, no?" Victoria continued. "What these 'scientists' doesn't understand is that we can hardly apply our limited knowledge of the universe on the alien technology anymore. In fact, we have to reconsider many of our scientific laws as many of the alien techs are capable of violating them. For example, before the alien invasion, it is thought that FTL is impossible and yet, on Earth, we already have one in our possession,"

"So here's my advice to these scientists; stop wasting our time," Victoria said and glared at the camera for a moment before flashing a smile at Laura. "Anymore questions?"

Laura gulped nervously before resuming. "Ah yes, um, well, a large reason why many were skeptical about psionics is the fact that is very rare. In fact, a lot of them are with XCOM, leading people to believe that psionics is a result of experimentation and perhaps, modification with alien DNA. What can you say about that?"

Victoria's smile didn't falter as she answered the question. "It is rare simply because…people didn't believe them," Laura raised an eyebrow and Victoria chuckled. "Everyone have latent psionic powers, just not powerful. Many of those psionics powers are in the form of déjà vu, gut instincts, the so called sixth sense and so on. What XCOM did was merely, activate those latent powers. However, this does not mean that everybody can have superpowers the moment they want to. There are other factors that comes into play in deciding whether or not a person can be a psionic,"

Laura nodded. "I see. What are the factors if you don't mind me asking?"

Victoria chuckled again. "The factors are too many to say right now. It would be much simpler for the person to just come to us to be checked. Still! Don't come to us just yet! XCOM have plans to conduct mass testing for psionics but not right now. When we are ready, we will announce to the public,"

Laura raised an eyebrow before asking. "Another question. The public opinion of psionics are rather negative. They see it as 'sorcery' and unnatural. What do you think about that? And what is your hope for psionics?"

Victoria sighed. "What they see as sorcery I simply see it progress and change. Change is nature and this is humanity's chance to better themselves. They see it as unnatural because they couldn't comprehend the change. Can you fathom what humanity would look like in a millennia from now? For all we know, the definition of human could have change completely at that time. To me, psionics is the next step in human evolution. Forget Melds and other alien techs, psionics is the next best thing,"

"My, that is quite the statement. You seem quite confident about it," Laura said and Victoria smirked.

"I am. If anything, I think it as our salvation,"

**…**

**...**

**XCOM Database**

**- Spaceships and Category**

Spaceships, starships, or spacecrafts are vehicles or vessels used for space travel. Much like its planet-based counterparts, spaceships come in different categories for different and specialized functions. Each category then had their own classes. The categories are Military, Exploration and Colonization.

**+ Colonization Spaceship Category**

Colonization spaceships are designed for the primary purpose of colonizing worlds. Because of this, most of their cargo are colonization materials such as seeds, livestocks, DNAs, people and terraforming machines. Due to the nature of their cargo, colonization ships are extremely expensive and valuable, requiring heavy protection from threats.

It is easy to confuse Exploration ships with Colonization ships as in general, their purpose is almost the same. There are a distinct function between the two. The primary purpose of Exploration ships is for scouting unknown locations and cargo transport. Due to the expensive cost of issuing and protecting a Colonization ship, Exploration ships are often used to scout unknown locations first to confirm for safety. Only when it is secure then the Colonization ship is sent ahead.

**++ Colony ship Class**

A Colony ship is from the Colonization category of spaceship. A colony ship's primary purpose is to carry people and everything that is required to start a self-sufficient colony such as animals, tools, seeds and even planetary terraforming machines. Colony ships tend to be very large as it has to carry a large number of live passengers as well as functioning ecosystems for a long period of travel in space. The destination (or a planet) is not important to a colony ship as it can survive almost indefinitely (due to its self-sustaining nature) and thus, its journey and survival is what matters most. Because of this, colony ships are often protected by a military fleet.

**++ Seed ship Class**

A Seed ship is from the Colonization category of spaceship. Compared to the colony ship, a seed ship's main focus is the destination not journey. It is smaller than a colony ship as it carries a smaller amount of live passengers and necessary 'seeds' (such as plant seeds, animal DNA) and tools (cloning machine, atmosphere generator) for terraforming a planet. The purpose of seed ships are often to find a suitable planet (that is empty or has no civilizations) and immediately terraforming it before the main colony ship arrive to settle in.

The first seed ship class in humanity's possession was once known as the Ethereal Temple-ship class, called the Temple Ship and it served as the Ethereals' mobile headquarters. Now in humanity's control, its category is changed to the current Seed ship class and renamed as Pandora's Box.

The Ethereal's seed ship however, is used differently as it was used for scientific military purpose rather than colonization. An Ethereal seed ship would seek out planets that have a civilization before using its onboard fabricator (an advanced 3D printing machine) to prepare for an invasion. However, it should be noted that the Ethereal seed ship is not suitable for frontline combat, acting as the main base and supplier for the invasion fleet and it would often remain hidden away from the invasion.

Following the Ethereal's method, seed ships can be used for military purposes to quickly establish a military base and factory instead of a colony.

**- Alien nanomachines**

After the Ethereal War, mankind came across two types of nanomachines from the alien technology. The first is Meld and was found in abundance on Earth during the war (due to the aliens' habit of placing on their field of operation) and on the Ethereal seed ship. Melds are cybernetic nanomachines mostly used for organic manipulations such as genetic manipulation and organic-mechanical integration.

The other type of nanomachine is found only on the Ethereal seed ship's fabricators and composed completely of mechanical parts. The 'normal' nanomachines are used as microscopic assemblers and their function is to build and maintain equipment.

Regardless of their type, both alien nanomachines are programmable. This is important as to control and limit their capabilities as nanomachines can be deadly (nanomachines can be set to disassemble organic creature in seconds and Meld can induce rapid and horrific mutations). As such, each nanomachine type can be turned off in case of emergency.

Ever since its discovery, mankind has replaced the nanomachine's operating system to prevent hijacking by the Ethereals.

**+ Melds**

Meld are cybernetic nanomachines made of both organic and mechanical components and it have have two purposes, the first is to act as microscopic surgeons for medical purposes. The second is for genetic manipulation as it allows for the combination of different genetic material as well as machines with each other without complications.

Meld, upon its discovery, was considered the 'miracle tech' and the 'holy grail' of the alien technology (even when compared to the psionics and FTL) due to its ability to bestow 'superpowers' to humans. Needless to say, many were eager to get their own genetic modifications. However, it is soon found out that most of these superpowers are from the fusion of alien genetic materials with Meld acting as the glue. If in case the Meld experience a malfunction such as a sudden shutdown or rampant programming, the effect can be disastrous. Not liking the idea of putting alien gene inside their body and the possibility of the Meld going haywire, the Alliance since then has declared that genetic modification with alien genetics to be illegal to the public. For the military elites however, that is a different case.

Although it is also found that Meld can be used for extensive genetic modifications to achieve those 'superpowers' without the need for alien tissues, creating a 'superhuman' without the aforementioned drawbacks. Fortunately, this is made illegal to the public again due to ethical issues (as this is what the Ethereals did to its alien army). Again, military elites have little restriction on this. However, Meld can still be used for medical purposes such as surgery, correction of genetic defects, and advanced healing (such as suturing of large wounds, pacemaker, defilabrator).

Genetic modifications aside, Meld is used extensively for implants and augmentations for superior connection to the nervous system and to prevent rejection. In fact, it is considered unsafe to install implants and augmentations without Meld.

* * *

**Author's Note: **Alright, hope you guy enjoy this one.

**Read and Review!**


	4. Chapter 2

**Chapter 2 – Combat Evolved **

**15****th ****May 2157**

**Real Simulation Mission 'All Sweep'**

**XCOM Simulation Ground 7. Location: [UNAUTHORIZED], Earth**

A large rectangular spaceship can be seen hovering above a ruined city. The spaceship, despite its size, was silent and unmoving, as if it was observing something in the city. And indeed it was.

The bridge of ASV-Monitor was bustling with activities. Most of the staff were busy on their workstations, supervising the ship as well as the current simulation that was happening in the city. Meanwhile, large holographic monitors filled the air of the bridge, showing various statistics of the simulation to the higher ups of the ship. Sitting on a chair at the center of the bridge was the Monitor's commander, Captain Randall Gray. He has black hair with equally black eyes and trimmed full face beard. On his left was a woman with shoulder length red hair and green eyes. She was Colonel Jan Shepard.

"Your students are doing well," Captain Randall stated.

"As they should be. I'd make them filter their own piss using only psion and have them drink it if they couldn't get to the end," Shepard said with a smirk and Captain Randall chuckled.

"So do you think that your students can beat Team Sigma's survival time?" Captain Randall asked and Shepard snorted.

"Considering that they're going against Hei Feng? Oh yes. She's itching for a good fight and that she's going against my students, I bet she would want to enjoy it," Shepard smirked. Captain Randall shook his head before continuing.

"Well that's not fair if she dragged it out. And I thought Warmages are all about efficiency and not letting personal eccentricities get in the way?"

"That's true but Hei Feng's a pro. In a real battle, she's the coldest bitch you'll ever face on the battlefield. Besides, you gotta have fun sometimes, right?" Shepard smiled at the captain.

"If that's what keep you guys sane, sure go for it," the Captain replied.

"It does," Shepard said and suddenly, one of the staff alerted them.

"Sir! Psi Team is approaching the third Hornet team!"

The Captain only nod his head in reply and Shepard's grin grew wider.

"Come on my cute Sheeps, make your Shepard proud," Shepard said and the Captain could only shook his head before returning his attention to the monitors. His eyes then landed on the Psi Team's information.

**PSI Team**

**PSI-1 LEADER, ASSAULT: FUAD WAHID**

**PSI-2 SUPPORT: JAI VASANT**

**PSI-3 HEAVY: MEI JIAN FENG**

**PSI-4 SNIPER: SASHA KOTSYA**

**PSI-5 ASSAULT: MORGAN DORIAN**

**…**

The ruined city was silent. Too silent. And that was not a good sign.

Three fully armored and well-armed figures stalked the streets silently. The street was filled with disabled vehicles of different variety in haphazard fashion. One car was fused to a truck in a way that it shouldn't have. Another car had smashed into a shop, its rear was sticking out like a creative display. The chaotic arrangement of the vehicles shows that they were trying to run away from something terrible, and failed spectacularly.

Terror. That was the impression it was supposed to give anyway.

The leader of the armored figure gave a sign and each of them quickly took cover behind the closest vehicles to them. Suddenly, a gunshot could be heard and a trail of green can be seen hitting from the window of a tall building 700 meters from the three armored figures.

"Enemy sniper down. Psi-1, I think we've disturbed the hornet's nest," the leader of the armored figure, Fuad Wahid, codename Psi-1 could hear from the communication device in his helmet and he nodded.

"Good, time to clear out the nest,"

At that moment, a stream of fire raced out from the buildings in front of them, pelting their cover mercilessly.

"Killers, return fire," Fuad said to his two ground members. They nodded and returned fire to the attackers.

"Psi-team, I've tagged the location of the hornets. Unable to engage from here," Psi-5 said. Immediately, the ground members of Psi team saw target icons appear on their HUD.

"Roger. Hunters stand by on overwatch," Fuad quickly assessed the situation. 4 hostiles tagged. 2 were in close proximity on the second floor of the building on the right side of the street. 1 in cover behind a van 100 meters in front of them while another behind a nearby truck.

"Psi-2, mine our back!" Fuad ordered. The team's support was Jai Vasant, nicknamed Psi-2. He silently nodded and threw out three mines to cover their back. Once the job was done, the Support resumed firing at the enemy.

"Psi-5, flank the ones on the street." Fuad ordered and Psi-5 gave his affirmative.

**…**

On the roof of a building near the ground 'Killers' of Psi Team, two armored figures can be seen. They were the 'Hunters' of Psi team.

"I'm going to hunt now, you good on your own?" Morgan Dorian or Psi-5 asked his teammate.

"I'll be fine," Psi-4, Sasha Kotsya the Sniper replied somewhat grudgingly. She didn't even look away from the scope of her sniper rifle. Morgan nodded and activated his cloaking module. In less than a second, he was invisible to the naked eye. He then started running towards the ledge before jumping off of it to the next building.

The gap between the buildings was impossible for a normal human to jump across. However, the armor worn by Morgan granted him superhuman strength and allowed him to make the impossible jump. He then made a roll as soon as his feet touched the ground to conserve momentum and resume his run. Morgan then took out a grenade and primed it before he reached his destination.

The two armored hostiles on the street failed to notice him and Morgan took the chance to throw the grenade at the farthest target. He didn't bother to look where the grenade landed after that and quickly took his rifle. As soon as Morgan opened fire, the cloaking module was disabled, denying him his invisibility. But it has served its purpose and wasn't needed at the time.

The flanking attack surprised the hostiles and they immediately turned at him. However, before they could respond, the farthest hostile was consumed by the thrown grenade. The remaining hostile was showered with green bullets that splashed against the energy shield. It weathered a couple of shots before it was disabled, allowing the green bullets to hit the hostile directly. Soon, the blue hostile was covered in green splashes of paint. The enemy armor's onboard computer calculated that it has accumulated enough simulated damage for its wearer to be dead and locked itself down. The hostile then fell to the ground, 'dead'.

Morgan lingered for a second to confirm his kill before reactivating his cloak again to rejoin his Hunter teammate.

"Hornets swatted,"

…

Being a Hunter was not easy, especially when you're the resident sniper. A Hunter's job was to spot distance targets and shoot them down while the close to medium range Killers close in for the kill. Hence, the Hunter-Killer term.

Of course, Sasha wasn't the only Hunter. However, her Hunter partner, Morgan wasn't a sniper like her. His job was to guard her to ensure that nothing managed to sneak up on her. But, as per her leader's orders, her bodyguard had other things to do right now.

So now Sasha had 3 simultaneous jobs; watch Morgan's back while he was trying to flank the enemy, shoot any enemy that she could and watch her own back.

The sniper could only hope that nothing scary would happen to her.

Suddenly, a missile can be seen racing from a hostile on the street and she calmed warned her ground team. "Missile,"

The projectile suddenly flew sky high before arcing back towards the ground. At that instant, Sasha cursed but she didn't peel her eyes away from the scope. It was lucky that she was cloaked. If not, the missile would have changed its target to her.

An explosion could be her and a moment later, she saw a grenade covered in purple energy flew towards the two hostiles in the building. An explosion could be heard before her leader confirmed the kill. A beat later, her bodyguard, Morgan also confirmed his kill.

Things were going well for them, for now.

**…**

"Blow 'em up?" Psi-3, Mei Jian Feng the Heavy asked and Fuad nodded.

"Grenade! Fly her up to the ones in the building!" Mei nodded but Fuad knew that she was grinning inside her helmet. The Heavy took out a grenade and primed it before Fuad send a streamer of purple energy at Mei, creating a link between them. Then, a purple glow covered the explosive and it started to float. However, at the same time, a calm warning could be heard.

"Missile," Sasha warned and immediately, without order, Jai stopped firing and erected a dome of purple energy around his team. The hostile ordnance travelled straight at first but then flew upwards, trying to bypass the defense. However as it found no opening, it arced back towards the Psi Team.

The projectile exploded in a shower of white foam and Jai used his psionic powers to throw away the foam. Meanwhile, Fuad fire at the hostiles in the building. Most of it missed due to their cover but that was fine. His goal wasn't to 'kill' them with his gun.

Mei then send the psionically-delivered grenade flying upwards and it raced through the air at its target. By right, because Mei was hunkering down behind her cover, she shouldn't be able to see where she was sending the grenade. However, the mind merge she had with Fuad provided the vision she needed.

The hostile tried to shoot the flying explosive down, but it weaved around gracefully and managed to get in between the two before it a burst into smaller explosives. The smaller projectiles exploded instantly, releasing a huge amount of white foam. At first, some of the white foam dissipated when it made contact with the hostile's energy shields. However, it also took down the shields, which left them vulnerable to the remaining white foam. The foam, unimpeded by the energy shield, instantly hardened, trapping the hostiles.

"2 hornets down!" Fuad said.

"Fuck yeah!" Mei cheered.

"Hornets swatted," Morgan confirmed.

"Good, are we cle-" Fuad was about to ask when an explosion could be heard behind them. The Killer team turn around and saw a hostile covered in white foam. He must have been cloaked and was about to ambush them. Unfortunately, he must have gotten too close to the smart mines.

The ground team trained their rifle towards the direction of the disabled hostile and for a few seconds, everything was quiet. Fuad send out a weak pulse of purple wave of psionic, gently pushing everything it hits. Seeing no distortion of air, the telltale sign of cloaked enemy, Fuad declared that it was safe.

"Clear," Fuad said and the Hunter team repeated the confirmation. "Alright, check your gear and reload your weapons. We're moving in a minute,"

His team confirmed the order and it was silent for a second before somebody spoke. "Well, that was easy. This was the third enemy team we've encountered. It would be nice if the whole mission goes like this," Mei said as she placed her 'plasma' repeater on the trunk of a car and did some light stretching.

"Tell me about it. Even the VR missions are harder than this," Sasha said.

"They always set the VR missions to the highest difficulty level. I guess the gruesome training we did in there actually paid off, huh?" Jai said next.

Morgan chuckled. "That's funny, they go to great length to make sure the VR missions feels like real, even letting us feel realistic pain and amped the difficulty. And yet, in the real world, they gave us mock weapons and somewhat easy mission. I'd feel insulted,"

"There's only so far they can do in real world without causing death," Fuad said. All XCOM and Alliance military had a variety of training regime. One of them was the Virtual Reality simulations. Needless to say, it was training from hell. In the VR, the system would inflict realistic pain, to a certain extent.

You were vaporized by a plasma grenade? Your whole body would feel as if it was cooked. A MEC ripped you apart and caused you to bleed to death? Nobody was sure how the tech heads managed to replicate the experience but needless to say, combined with the near impossible difficulty setting, almost everyone hated the VR. Not to mention that 'dead' soldiers and their team would get heavy punishments as incentive for them not to 'die' in the next VR training.

Of course, the VR was the only place they could go wild. They could experience what it feels like to use all the techs without restrictions such as the mobile suits, Titan mechs and energy weapons.

"Still, I have a feeling that something's not right. I'm not surprised if they suddenly spike the difficulty…" Fuad said and Sasha groaned. "If anything, think of it like a survival wave in videogames. They've send the easy wave. Now it's time for the medium wave,"

"Great," Sasha said.

"You're right. Besides, we don't know who the target is," Jai said and his HUD's minimap zoomed in to show a red arrow. It was their primary goal.

"It could be a Warmage," Mei shrugged and everybody groaned.

"You've tempted fate! Of all the – why must you pick a Warmage?" Sasha said.

"Oh come on, you know it's going to happen. Every senior team has to face them and so far, we've haven't face one," Mei said.

"Have to agree. Besides, this mission is way too easy," Morgan said.

"Yeah, I think they're trying to make us lower our guard. Still, I think that we've faced worse than a Warmage, like our dear beloved teacher," Fuad said with a joking tone and everyone groaned.

"Anyway, time to move on. Ready?" Fuad asked and everybody confirmed positive. Fuad then ordered for them to press forward.

The ground team stalked from cover to cover quickly, while the sniper team would carefully traverse the rooftops without causing too much distortion to their cloaks.

After a few minutes, they were just 300 meters away from their primary target and still there was no enemy in sight. Everyone was feeling a bit trigger happy, ready to unleash everything on anything hostile.

"Guys, my spider-sense is tingling. Something's up ahead," Jai said and Fuad ordered everyone to stop and get to cover.

Sure enough, the wall of a building in front of them exploded and an armored figure 2.5 meters tall appeared from the smoke generated by the debris. It was a MEC, a super-heavy infantry unit and it was armed to the teeth. Its left hand was holding a grenade launcher, its right hand a 'plasma' canon. And if that wasn't enough, its right shoulder has a missile launcher and it was also accompanied by a support drone.

Fuad's eyes widened before he ordered his ground team to head into the building. Any cover from the street would be useless against the heavy weapons the MEC was packing. And sure enough, it was proven true when the MEC fired its grenade launcher, sending an explosive projectile racing through the air towards the ground Psi team.

The ground team couldn't get into the building quick enough when the projectile managed to get in the center of the formation and exploded. The grenade was a special one however. The first explosion send out a wave of mass effect field, which lowers the mass of surrounding objects. The second explosion, just 1 second later send out a shockwave. With their mass reduced, the shockwave would send any affected objects further away.

The shockwave sent Jai crashing into a café through the windows while Mei smashed straight into the wall of a building. Fuad however, was thrown further backwards into the streets.

**…**

Morgan could only looked in silence as the MEC started to appear from the smoke. From this range, his weapon wouldn't do much damage and it would reveal their location away. No doubt the MEC would use its missile launcher to counter them. The decision to strike was now in Sasha's hands and no doubt, she was lining for the perfect shot.

For now, Morgan could only assess the situation. MEC nowadays was very different from the first generation MECs that XCOM had used back then as a person no longer has to amputate their limbs. Instead, the MECs of today were just like the powered armor the Psi Team were using, except that MECs were much bigger, heavier and stronger. Not to mention that current generation MECs were sleeker than the boxy first generation MECs. They resembled more of a tall human than a boxy robot human*****. Furthermore, since the person using the MEC was basically just like the rest of Psi Team, they can use psionic abilities as well.

The MECs began its assault and already it was devastating. The entire ground team was hit, but Morgan wasn't worried because he know they'll 'survive'. What had him worried was that his early threat detection psionic sense or as everyone would like to call it, 'spider sense' was going off like crazy.

Morgan really wished that his spider sense would be more specific.

Suddenly, realization dawned on him. The MEC on the street was a Killer MEC! That means there was a Hunter MEC somewhere!

And military training and tactics had taught him that usually, Hunters take on Hunters. Which meant…

Before Morgan could do anything more, Sasha released a shot at the MEC's head. Unfortunately, the support drone realized this and blocked the shot with its own body. Green paint splashed the drone with enough force to send it knocking the MEC's head with an audible sound. Although the drone suffered no damage, the paint was supposed to emulate plasma fire and its onboard computer decided that it has been 'destroyed'. The drone then fell to the ground with a low whine.

Sasha cursed in Russian and released another shot. This time, the MEC used his grenade launcher to block the shot, splashing the weapon with paint and 'destroying' it before throwing it away. Sasha cursed again and Morgan's hunch was right. The MEC didn't retaliate with its missile launcher but it instead turned its focus back on the ground team.

Morgan immediately turned around and saw a jetpack exhaust in midair but there was no body. Then almost immediately, the light around the jetpack distorted to reveal another MEC. The MEC was suspended in the air for a moment before it reared its left hand back and its jetpack roared, sending it flying towards Sasha.

Morgan immediately grabbed Sasha who protested at the sudden action and threw her to another side of the rooftop and the MEC missed her and Morgan by a hair's breath. Sasha slid for a short while before the rooftop's ledge stopped her.

"Oh," Sasha simply said after realizing what had happened. Morgan however, wasn't so lucky. The Hunter MEC used the momentum from the missed punch earlier to backhand Morgan. The MEC's left hand was equipped with a modern kinetic strike module which, on contact releases a burst of mass effect field to reduce the target's mass. Then the pile driver delivers the kinetic strike.

However, the kinetic strike was meant to hit targets straight ahead in a manner of a punch and not backhand swing. Thus, Morgan was only affected by the mass effect field. However, since MECs even unarmed can level a building, the force was strong enough to send Morgan sliding across the rooftop, smash through its ledge and into the streets below.

"Oh no," Sasha said after seeing the event. The Hunter MEC then turned to face Sasha and activated its 'plasma' caster mounted on its left shoulder and aimed it at the sniper.

"Oh no you don't!" Sasha said and immediately sniped the weapon. Covered in green paint, the weapon failed to fire but it didn't faze the Hunter MEC, who promptly took out another weapon from its right shoulder.

The weapon was a short sword, half the MEC's height. If anything, it looked comical on the MEC, as if it was using a weapon one size too short for it. That was until the sword's blade opened and a holographic green beam shot out from it.

Although it was holographic but Sasha knew what it represent. A particle beam shaped in the form of a blade. The non-training version of the sword, the one with the real particle beam blade can cleave a healthy Titan mech in half. Hell, give it time and it can dismantle starships.

Needless to say, a direct hit from the sword and Sasha will be out of the training.

"Oh you gotta be kidding me!"

**…**

The attack by the Psi team's Hunters proved to be invaluable as it allowed Fuad to regain his bearings. Without getting up from the ground, Fuad send out a short range psionic pulse to detect where his friends were. In an instant, he found Mei just a few meters ahead of him.

He tried to search for his weapons but it seems that the blast had scattered all of his ranged weapons. Mei lost most of her weapons as well, save for her missile launcher. Having no time to waste, he turned to look at his closest team member.

Like from a comedy cartoon, Mei was embedded face first into the wall and had left an imprint. What was more, her limbs were spread out in an X formation. Suppressing his urge to laugh, he used his psionic ability to pull out Mei out of the wall and formed a link with her.

'Wake up!' Fuad telepathically urged and Mei jolted awake but didn't get up to her feet yet. However, the Killer MEC was already turning its attention to them and was about to launch its missile. Fortunately, a smoke grenade landed on the near them and released its payload. The smoke prevented a visual lock-on and even then, the MEC were distracted by the cover fire provided by Jai from the inside of the café.

'Get ready, I have a plan!' Fuad said and Mei nodded.

'Lead on,' Mei replied.

**…**

'The fall was too quick,' Morgan thought as he stared at the sky. Like a bad movie flick, he landed on a car and it cushioned his fall. Not that it matters anyway as their armor could protect them from the fall. What bugged him was that he could have recovered from the fall and activate his jetpack to get back into the fight.

'That would have been cool.' He thought. 'Oh well, time to get back to the fight or I'll never hear the end of it from Sasha,'

Morgan climbed back to his feet and cracked his neck. Then, flaps on the back of his armor opened to reveal jetpack thrusters and it flared to life. In less than a second, Morgan was already back on the rooftop and the situation wasn't so bad. That was until the Hunter MEC pulled out its 'anti-everything' sword.

Morgan who was still in the air, began shooting at the MEC. The MEC ignored it, knowing that it can survive a full clip from a 'plasma' rifle and charged at Sasha who was still on the floor. The MEC slashed horizontally but Sasha activated her jetpack and flew upwards.

'Should have flown backwards away!' Morgan thought and sure enough, before Sasha could even fly a meter away from the MEC, it jumped high enough to grab the sniper's neck and throw her back to the rooftop.

'GAH!' Sasha screamed. Not from pain but from shock. The MEC, still in the air, brought up his sword above his head and began to fall towards Sasha.

The Hunter MEC was about to bring down his sword on the sniper but her guardian delivered a mid-air kick first. The attack was enough to cause the MEC to release its sword. Unfortunately, Morgan didn't released his attack as his left foot was still connected to the MEC's hip. The MEC then chose to press on the advantage. It was faster to react as it reorient itself to face Morgan and activated its own jetpack to counter the force and for a moment, the both of them was hanging in mid-air.

Now it was Morgan's turn to be surprised and the MEC capitalize on it. The MEC grabbed Morgan and dived towards the rooftop before slamming him to the floor. The Hunter MEC deliberately held back however to prevent him from smashing into the building and it immediately reared its left hand back for a devastating punch.

Fortunately, the MEC changed its mind and blocked its head with the kinetic strike module before a sniper round could hit it.

"Nuh-uh!" Sasha said.

Morgan then took this advantage to push the MEC away from him and activate his jetpack, propelling him across the floor. Along the way, his hand accidently reached for the MEC's beam sword and he took it. His jetpacks then changed its thrust towards the floor, pushing him away from it. Morgan then deactivated his jetpacks and he was back on his feet again.

"Hold him!" Morgan ordered and Sasha nodded before she send a purple tendril at the MEC. The MEC was already on its feet when he was rendered immobile by the purple tendril. Morgan took this chance and initiated a jetpack-assisted dash towards his target.

The immobile Hunter MEC however, managed to break free of the psionic grasp by releasing its own burst of psionic energy. However, it didn't do the MEC any good as Morgan had already reached it and slashed horizontally. The holographic green blade made contact with the MEC's midsection, its length shortened for a moment before regaining its original length once it has passed.

For a few seconds, everything was quiet and nothing move. Then, after it felt like an eternity, the Hunter MEC fell backwards and the sword in Morgan's hand shut itself down.

"Fuuuuuuuucccccckkk," Sasha said as both Psi Hunters fell on their asses.

"That was intense," Morgan said. "Come on, we have to help the others,"

"Right, right," Sasha waved and the both of them got to their feet.

**…**

The Killer MEC was firing rounds after rounds of its 'plasma' cannon into the café where Jai was hiding, splattering the inside with green paint. Although the 'plasma' cannon shoots green paint, it has enough force to send a MEC flying backwards for a few meters. As such, every piece of furniture in the café was blown to smithereens.

The smoke covering Fuad and 3 was about to clear and the MEC knew that something must be done soon. It then aimed his missile launcher into the café and opted for manual aim instead. Unfortunately, the MEC's system warned him that he has been locked on and the sound of a missile launch could be heard.

The MEC immediately turned its attention towards the streets again and found a speeding missile heading towards it. Its system locked on to the missile and the MEC launched its own. The two then collided mid-air and released its payload of white foam.

Suddenly, Fuad ran through the white foam before it can harden and Mei jumped over the white foam with a yell. The MEC decided to attack Mei with its cannon while at the same time, sending a purple tendril at Fuad. The psionic attack was cancelled by Fuad's own psionic spear while Mei deflected the shots away.

Mei managed to land near the MEC and grabbed its 'plasma' cannon before crushing it in a destructive hug. With no more ranged weapons left, the MEC was forced to engage in melee. It released its weapon and surged forward, grabbing Mei's helmet, who let out a startled gasp. Its free hand reached to Fuad but he slid underneath him.

At that moment, Jai jumped out of the café's window and threw his 'plasma' rifle at Fuad. Fuad caught it while the MEC threw the Heavy at the Support. Jai expected this and caught his teammate while Fuad released a barrage of 'plasma' fire. The MEC's shield faltered but at the same time, Ps-1's weapon ran out of ammo for the kill.

The MEC knew that it won't last long and decided to make its escape. It was about to jetpack away when purple tendrils latched on to it, courtesy of Mei. Fuad took this chance to brandish his knife and launched himself at the MEC. He managed to 'stab' the training knife's holographic blade into the MEC's neck before he pressed a trigger on the knife.

In a real battle, the knife would have pierced the less armored neck and deliver a massive electric shock strong enough to kill even the heaviest augmented soldier. As such, the MEC's onboard computer registered the 'damage' and locked the armor down, signifying that it was 'dead'.

Everyone sighed in relief before Fuad asked about the other team's condition.

"Hunter Team all good, killed the freaking wasp," Morgan replied.

Fuad chuckled. "Good, good. As usual, get here ASAP,"

"Already OTW," Sasha confirmed and Fuad nodded. He then turned towards his Killer members who was picking up their weapons.

"All weapons green," Jai said and threw Fuad his weapons.

"Alright, get ready to move," Fuad said and Mei did a little stretching exercise.

"Okay now I'm sure we're gonna face a Warmage after this," Mei said. "And knowing our teacher's sadistic nature, she might be here herself,"

"Oh god no," Sasha said and Fuad looked up and saw the decloaking Hunters looking at them from a rooftop. "I rather face any other Warmage than her,"

"Still, Mei is right. We need to prepare for the possibility of facing a Warmage," Fuad said.

"That's the problem, almost nothing works against a Warmage," Morgan asked.

"I heard from the seniors that nothing short of orbital bombardment or divine intervention that would work," Jai added.

"What would I do for a divine intervention," Sasha said and the team chuckled.

"Who knows, we might get it. Still…we have to move. If we linger any longer they're going to send more enemies at us," Fuad said and ordered his team to move forward.

The team confirmed the order and began to move cautiously and silently. While the rest the team were checking their surroundings, Fuad was busy pondering valid strategies that could be used against a Warmage and so far he got nothing. Thinking that maybe he missed something that could be vital, Fuad began a mental revision of just what are Warmages.

Warmage was a title given to the very best human psionic soldiers. Proficient in all forms of psionic abilities, they specialize in psionic and anti-psionic warfare. Of course, having made an example from the Ethereals, they didn't focus on just psionic but on their physical as well. A Warmage is capable of engaging enemies from all range and all form of combat and can operate almost any weapons and vehicles.

Needless to say, they were humanity's cream of the crop, the best of the best. If the Ethereals could see the Warmage now, they would be green with envy.

They were the closest thing to a perfect soldier that humanity have.

Soon they reached a weird obstacle which broke Fuad from his thoughts. It was a barrier made from cars blocking the path ahead.

"Looks like we have to-" Fuad couldn't finish as the cars moved on its own to reveal an opening.

And then, they saw her.

"Shit! Warmage!" Sasha warned and the Killer of Psi team get to cover. Fuad peeked from his cover to get a good look at their target. The Warmage was dressed in all slender black armor that gave away her gender. The armor also has a tailcoat that were long enough to go past the knees but not reach the ground. What was perhaps the most striking feature of the Warmage was her helmet******. It was a reflective jet-black and lacked any features or design like the other helmets usually have. The reflective nature has its purpose; get close enough and you would see your own fear-stricken face.

Warmages were specialized in anti-psionic warfare and since psionic strength tend to fluctuate depending on the state of mind, part of their strategy was _fear. _And it worked somewhat, seeing the all black figure as if it was Death itself.

Furthermore, the Warmage was currently sitting crossed legged while _floating_ half a meter above the ground. A 'plasma' rifle floated in her left hand and it was constantly being _disassembled and reassembled_, a testament to her psionic strength and control.

"Why is she just sitting there?" Morgan asked.

"She's waiting for us to make a move. That's quite generous of her," Jai answered and it was true. A month ago, Beta Team was taken down in 7 seconds and they didn't realized that it was a Warmage that had taken them down_._

"Let's take the chance then! What do we do now?" Sasha asked.

"On my orders, Psi-4 take a shot, Psi-3 missile, Psi-2 and I are going to shoot her," Fuad ordered and his team confirmed the order. The Warmage seemed to notice this as she floated back to the ground and the assembled rifle was placed on her left. She then linked her hands together and placed them on her lap.

"Ready…now!"

A sniper fire could be heard and at the same time, a missile was flying towards their target followed by a hail of 'plasma' fire. The sniper shot was faster and once it was only a few meters away from its target, the Warmage flicked her left hand and changed the bullet's trajectory towards the missile. The bullet hit the missile and it send the explosive projectile crashing to the far left, missing its target completely. Her right hand then shot forward and the remaining bullets from Fuad and Jai's shots were deflected completely.

Fuad wasn't finished however. "Hold her!" he ordered and Jai and Mei nodded. Their hands lashed out and send a purple tendril to hold their target in place. Meanwhile Fuad send out a fast moving psi bullet meant to knock its target away.

The Warmage's body glowed purple when the tendrils struck her, indicating that their psionic hold had connected. However, before Fuad's psi bullet could reach her, a psionic wave erupted from her body, deflecting the bullet and knocking the Killers of Psi Team to the ground.

And just like that, their attack was rendered useless. If this was a videogame, Warmages were just straight up cheating.

"Can we call that orbital strike now?" Mei asked.

"I could do with a divine intervention," Jai said.

"Guys, the Warmage is doing something!" Morgan said and Fuad quickly get back to his feet. Sure enough, the Warmage waved her hand and the streets around her became _alive_. It formed a dome around her, shielding her from the world.

'Dammit! What is she trying to do?!' Fuad thought to herself.

**...**

Sasha could only stare as the Warmage was rendering all of their attacks ineffective. She really wished she could just empty her clip on their but she couldn't. The worst thing that could happen was to have her shot deflected at her teammates.

Morgan looked agitated as well, wishing that he could help the Killers but he couldn't. One of the Warmage's abilities was _teleportation. _If he moved and leave Sasha alone…

Suddenly, the Warmage encased herself in a protective dome made from the streets itself. Thinking that the Warmage might not be able to see them, Morgan signaled Sasha to follow him. Sasha gave him a skeptical look but it couldn't be seen because of her helmet. Nevertheless, she decided to follow him anyway and the both of them activated their cloaking module

Morgan could only took a single step before his module deactivated again and he was already on his knees. Suddenly, his vitals flashed red and Morgan fell face forward to the floor. And just like that, Morgan was 'dead'.

"Shit, now-" Sasha couldn't finished as suddenly she could hear _her own voice_ spoke to her creepily.

_**There you are…**_

"What the fuc-" and instantly, her armor locked itself down and a red message flashed angrily on her HUD.

**YOU ARE DEAD. SWITCHING COMMUNICATION CHANNELS.**

"What?! How did I die?! How did Morgan die?!" Sasha asked. Since she was dead, she couldn't communicate with her still 'living' members. She can however communicate with her 'dead' members.

**CAUSE OF DEATH: HEAD HORIZONTALLY SEVERED IN HALF ABOVE THE NOSE. INSTANT DEATH. **

"My head was cut in half!? By what?!"

Before her body could fell to the floor, Sasha could see an object decloaking itself. The object in question was a hilt of a knife made from psionite, a psion material. The psionite object was glowing purple and a holographic purple blade was sticking out from one end.

"What is it? I can't see," Morgan asked.

"Shit. It's a psionite knife," Sasha replied and her body fell to the floor with a loud thump. A psionite material was sensitive to psion, the energy powering psionic abilities. A person can channel their psion into it for a variety of purposes. Heck, Sasha figured that the Warmage channeled her thoughts into the psionite knife, allowing her to _see _what the knife _sees _and control it from far. Furthermore, a psionite shaped blade channeled with psion can cut through almost anything effortlessly. Hence, that was why the psionite blade's holographic blade glowed purple, the sign of psion instead of the green of particle weapons.

It was why the Warmage hid under the dome. She needed all of her concentration to control the psionic knife from that range.

"Damn," Morgan said.

"Damn indeed," Sasha replied. They couldn't do anything but to wait.

**…**

"Shit, now-" Sasha couldn't finish as Morgan's vitals suddenly showed that he was _dead._

"What happened?!" Fuad asked before he heard

"What the fuc-" Sasha could only say before she was taken out as well.

"What?! How?!" Mei asked. Before the question could be answered, the dome parted to reveal the Warmage again.

She raised both of her hands and suddenly, 10 'plasma' rifle flew out from the streets and floated above her.

Fuad's eyes widened. "Take cover!" Fuad ordered and his team complied before the weapons fired. "Take them out! No grenades!"

Mei clicked her tongue in disapproval before shooting at the floating weapons with her 'plasma' repeater. Fortunately for them, the floating rifle wasn't very accurate and they were able to take half down without taking too much damage.

Suddenly, two rifles shot forward like a bullet and it hit Mei's and Fuad's weapons with such force that both of the weapons were destroyed. The remaining three rifles flew closer towards them, while dodging Jai's bullets.

The rifles were now hovering above them and began raining fire while moving around erratically. The three Psi members dodged and ducked around the fire before they retaliated. Mei took out her gun and shot one down, Fuad threw a psionic spear that destroyed one and Jai destroyed the final rifle just before he ran out of ammo.

With the flying weapons taken out, they then turned their attention back to the Warmage, only to found her to be missing. Then, an intense feeling of fear washed over them and the world began to darken. Suddenly, an unintelligible whispering assaulted their ears and they could see _creatures _hiding and observing them from the shadows.

The remaining Psi team were experiencing a psionic-induced fear. Unfortunately, it was working.

Although they knew what they were seeing wasn't real, it was still hard to convince their bodies otherwise. Their were trembling and the fear rooted them to the spot. The creatures, as if sensing their fear, began to move out from their hiding spot and revealed themselves.

The creatures were naked humanoids but they didn't have any sexual features. Furthermore, they didn't have any face or ears yet somehow, the sound of _babies_ crying could be heard from them. The creatures then began converging on them and Psi team instantly backed away.

"Fuck! Stay away!" Mei said and began shooting at the creatures. Some of the shots hit the mark but it was futile as more would replace the fallen.

"Run, run!" Jai said and although Fuad wanted to say no, his body complied and the three of them turned around.

Only to find the Warmage waiting for them.

The Warmage looked different than before. Its black armor was constantly moving, as if it was alive and the jet-black helmet suddenly parted open vertically to reveal _rows upon rows of teeth_.

_**Three fat little sheeps, ready for the slaughter!**_

The Warmage turned monstrosity said with their own voices combined.

"Nooo!" Mei said and aimed her gun only to find it empty. "Shit! Get away from-"

The Warmage lunged her left hand at Mei's neck and began choking her singlehandedly. Mei could only mutter gibberish word as the air began to leave her. She tried to defy the monstrous Warmage by kicking and punching but it was obvious that her strength was fading.

Meanwhile, the creatures began to swarm the remaining Psi team and they tried desperately to fend them off. However, the creatures were too many and they fell to the ground. The creatures then began clawing at them frantically. Jai were already screaming his head off while trying to fight away the creatures. Fuad wanted to do the same but somehow, he managed only to cover his face with his arms.

And that action proved to be useful as it stopped him from seeing the horrific creatures and it allowed him to regain his sense of mind and courage. Fuad then decided to capitalize on the chance lest it will be consumed by fear again.

With a cry, Fuad sent out a burst of psionic inspiration and instantly, the horrors were gone and everything was silent again. Realizing that he had managed to dispel the psionic fear, he quickly got back to his feet to engage the unstoppable psionic soldier. He quickly scanned the area for his target and quickly found that the Warmage still chocking Mei. Fortunately, Mei managed to regain her courage to quickly react. She tightened her grip on the Warmage's hand before pulling out a grenade and prime it, hoping that she would be able to take her down with it.

Unfortunately, the Warmage didn't look the least worried. In fact, she even wiggled her finger before immobilizing Mei in a psionic grip and send her flying away.

"No!" Fuad cried but he was too late as the grenade exploded a few seconds later and Mei's vitals went red.

Fuad and Jai went still at the sight. Now there was only the two of them left. The Warmage slowly turn towards them and made a welcoming gesture with her left hand, challenging and taunting them at the same time.

"Damn you!" Jai screamed and charged at the Warmage and engaged her in melee.

As expected, the Warmage easily evaded and parried Jai's strikes but he wasn't giving up. Seeing no other option right now, Fuad joined in the fight and attacked the Warmage from behind. Unfortunately, it wasn't going well. Try as they might, they still couldn't land a hit on the Warmage. Each punch was deflected away and each kick couldn't even launch as the Warmage would counter with her own kick first. It was as if she was _reading_ their minds.

'No, she's reading our movements,' Fuad thought.

Jai threw a punch but his target merely deflected it to her side, almost causing him to stumble. The Warmage then delivered a vicious psionic assisted backhand at Jai with enough force to break his neck. Fortunately, modern powered armor's synthetic neck muscles would lock itself up when it detected abnormal neck movements, preventing the neck from being broken.

Fuad seeing that it would be pointless to engage her in hand-to-hand combat, charged her for a tackle. The Warmage merely sidestep and to add insult to injury, tripped his leg, causing him to fall forwards.

Meanwhile, seeing that the Warmage was preoccupied with Fuad, Jay instantly brought out his 'plasma' gun and aimed it at her. Unfortunately, try as he might, he just couldn't pull the trigger and he knew why. His body was surrounded in a thin layer of purple energy and the Warmage slowly turn her head at him.

Jai's hands then slowly moved the gun towards his head. His eyes widened and he willed his own psionic power to repel the Warmage's hold on him. Unfortunately, her psionic strength was stronger and he could only resist it. It won't be long until he would shoot himself with his own gun.

Fuad managed got back to his feet and tried to tackle the Warmage again to break her concentration. It didn't work as the Warmage simply directed a hand at Fuad and he too was caught in the same psionic hold as Jai.

"N..No!" Fuad said through gritted teeth as he tried to resist the psionic hold while being forced to watch Jai commit 'suicide. Unfortunately, he wasn't strong enough.

Jai released an angry scream before he unwillingly pulled the gun on his own head. The support's personal energy shield dissipated a number of rounds before it was overwhelmed. Soon, Jai's helmet was covered in green and his vitals went red in Fuad's HUD.

The Warmage released her hold on Fuad and the remaining squad of Psi Team resumed his tackle. Unfortunately, his target was still holding on to Jai and she threw his teammate at him. Fuad 's tackle was stopped and he almost fell before he regained his footing and as well as his friend. However, the Warmage wasn't done as she sent out powerful psionic push that send the both of them flying 10 meters away.

In the air, the both of them were separated before they touched the ground harshly. The added weight of their body and powered armor destroyed the streets as they bounced a few times before they rolled to a stop.

The Warmage didn't move a muscle as she observed her work in silence. She remained still as a statue as she waited for the leader of Psi Team to get back to his feet. 30 seconds has passed and there wasn't any movement at all. Thinking that her prey might have been knocked unconscious or has given up, the Warmage then began to walk slowly towards her target.

Suddenly, Fuad's right hand clutched into a fist. The Warmage then paused and waited patiently for her prey to regain his strength again.

Meanwhile, there was an emotional storm brewing inside Fuad's being. He was feeling frustrated that he and his team were utterly powerless against the Warmage. He was angry at his friend's defeat, at how easily they were taken down. He was frustrated at the Warmage, at how unstoppable and unfair she was. He was angry at her for toying with them like this.

But most of all, he was frustrated and angry at himself, at how weak and useless he was. He was the team leader! He was supposed to lead them to success!

Fuad weakly sat himself on his knees and his head turned on the Warmage. She was just standing there, waiting and mocking him. But what could he do?

Nothing.

He then took out his 'plasma' gun and laid it on his lap, unsure of what to do.

He was tempted to give up and let the Warmage do whatever she wanted with him. Or just commit 'suicide'. He slowly checked his gun to make sure that it was still functional until he found a word engraved on the gun.

**FIGHT THE POWER**

Then suddenly, he remembered their teacher's words or as she liked to called it, 'The Words of The Shepard,'

'_There are times when almost everything will fail you,'_

It does sure seem like it right now.

'_Your weapon will fail you!'_

Nothing in his arsenal will work against her. Certainly not this gun. The Warmage would just deflect it.

'_Your armor will fail you!'_

If this was a real battle, the Warmage could have just crushed him into a pulp.

'_Your tech will fail you!'_

He has the best technology humanity had to offer and yet…

'_Your own emotions will fail you!'_

He was angry, frustrated and afraid. And that made his psionic strength dropped significantly. At this point, he could have just thrown a psionic lance at the Warmage and it would only tickle her.

'_Your own mind will fail you!'_

His rational and logical mind told him that it was pointless to continue the fight. That he should take _flight_ instead. He should just run away. Just…run...

'_However. All those are meaningless! What's truly important is your being, your essence, your spirit! Conquer it, and you will conquer your mind and emotions. Master it and you will master yourself,'_

He and his teammate had asked how to do just that. To conquer one's spirit.

'_Simple. Just believe in yourself. Not in you that I believe in; not in me that you believe in. Just believe in you that believes yourself,'_

'_That…you just ripped __**Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann**__, word by word!' Sasha called their mentor out._

'_So? That anime is the epitome of will power! Heck, psionic and Spiral power is almost the same so it is a damn good teaching material!'_

'_But…that doesn't make sense!' Morgan said._

'_It doesn't have to make sense! Just believe in yourself and you can do the impossible! See the invisible, touch the untouchable and break the unbreakable! Now what's our team motto!?'_

'_FIGHT THE POWER!'_

Fuad chuckled at the memory. Right. Even if it would be impossible in the end, he would not give up even before trying! Besides, it wasn't like he had anything more to lose right?

Fuad's mind and emotions calmed down. Now, he could think more clearly and he felt his psionic strength return again. Fuad then slowly got back to his feet and took off his helmet. Fuad Wahid was a young man with brown skin, short unkempt hair that goes everywhere and blue eyes.

The Warmage seemed surprised by this as she titled her head to the side. Fuad threw his helmet away and entered a stance with his gun in his right hand.

"**Gun Kata**. Think you're up for it?" Fuad said with a smile and made a 'come on' gesture with his gun.

Fuad liked to think that the Warmage smiled as she took out her own gun and entered the same stance as Fuad. The both of them then started to walk slowly towards each other.

Gun Kata before the Ethereal Wars was just a gymnastic gunplay for entertainment purposes in movies. In other words, using firearms in the way that it shouldn't be used. It was extremely dangerous and foolhardy to do in real life…back then. Now, thanks to psionics and other advancements in technology, it was a feasible and extremely effective form of martial arts defense.

However, Gun Katas were hard to learn and even more so to master. Fuad and his team learn it frequently, but he wouldn't call himself a master. Warmages, on the other hand were required to master it.

Still, do the impossible right?

With a calm state of mind and body, Fuad willed his psionic power to enhance all of his senses and focused all of his attention to the upcoming fight.

The both of them came within striking range of each other and neither moved for a few seconds after that. Suddenly, without warning and as fast as lightning, the Warmage aimed her gun at him. Fuad deflected it with his left and tried to grab her wrist but she jerked it away and at the same time, Fuad aimed her gun at her left leg.

As expected, she swatted it away and soon it became a dance between the two of them. One would attack with the gun and the other would swat it away. Sometimes, it wasn't just about trying to get a shot in but also to get a strike with their gun or hands as well. The routine repeated itself many times at high speeds which surprised the both of them.

The Warmage didn't expect for him to be this good. She wasn't holding back and he was matching her!

Fuad was surprised that he was doing quite well against her! In truth he was more surprised by how easy it was for him to anticipate what the Warmage was going to do. When she was about to strike with her left hand, Fuad's would somehow knew it beforehand. Perhaps this was what allowed Warmages to be so powerful.

They managed to master their mind, body and emotions all the time. It was what allowed them to think faster and smarter and keep their psionic strong and consistent.

And right now, Fuad was in the same state.

However, it couldn't last forever. It still doesn't change the fact that the Warmage had more experience than him and she managed to disable his shield. Now the stakes were higher. A plasma gun would take 3 shots to pierce through powered armor but a single hit on his head and he would be out.

And the Warmage realized this as she began to put pressure on her attack to his head. Fuad managed to get a few shots in as well but it wasn't enough to disable her shields or prevent it from regenerating. However, the Warmage was also in the same situation; she need to deliver the headshot quick or his shield would recover and she would need repeat the process again. That wouldn't be possible as their guns do not have enough ammo for that.

The both of them needed to do something to end the fight.

Suddenly, Fuad's spider sense flared like crazy. He didn't know exactly what it was but something was coming at him and it would **end **him. And it was at that time he had a crazy idea.

His gun hand lashed out at her but before she could swat it, Fuad psionically disassembled the weapon. She realized this and it surprised her, causing her defense to slack for a moment and as a result, her block came out weak. Fuad then send the pieces to smash against her helmet, further distracting her.

The Warmage backed a step and her gun was aimed away from Fuad. Fuad took this chance to disassemble her gun as well. Unfortunately, the Warmage recovered and before Fuad could send the gun pieces away, the Warmage willed it to reassemble itself again.

Suddenly, Fuad's spider senses flared again and instinctively, Fuad brought out his right hand and managed to _grab something. _To the surprise of both, Fuad had managed to grab the Warmage's psionite knife.

'This is what took down Sasha and Morgan!' Fuad thought.

The both of them recovered their focus but Fuad managed to press on the advantage first. He willed his psionic to disassemble the Warmage's gun and at the same time, twirled the knife and brought it down on her. The Warmage reassembled back the gun her and her left arm block Fuad's right arm, preventing the knife from reaching her.

Soon it became a power struggle between two fronts. Fuad would disassemble the gun while the Warmage would reassemble it back and the process would repeat many times. At the same time, Fuad tried to put his entire strength to bring down the psionite knife to her and the Warmage would resist. All this while, Fuad only stared at the Warmage without showing any kind of struggle.

This was unsettling for the Warmage. Not many could stare down a Warmage especially at a time like this.

Knowing that he needed to put more power, _any kind of power _to his right hand. And so he channeled his psionic power to the psionite knife. The problem was that the blade was already linked to its master, the Warmage. Soon, the psionite blade glowed a brighter purple from the collective power between the two psikers.

This also had the effect of linking their minds together.

_**You will DIE!**_

The Warmage tried but Fuad wasn't fazed. Instead, Fuad returned the thought.

_**I will win.**_

Fuad said rather calmly.

_**You think you CAN? You are INSIGNIFICANT! A SHEEP TO BE SLAUGHTERED! **_

Fuad didn't care.

_**I will do the impossible…**_

Suddenly, the Warmage realized something and turned her head on her psionite knife. Fuad's psion was focusing in the shape of a blade and psionite shards began to form on the hilt.

_**IMPOSSIBLE!**_

The Warmage said, more to what was happening than trying to break Fuad's will. For this mission, her psionite knife only has the hilt and the not the blade. However, this guy, a trainee was starting to form a psionite blade in the heat of battle?!

_**I will see the invisible…**_

The Warmage turned her head back to Fuad, who doesn't seem to realize what he was doing. She need to do something, quick! She then decided to release her hold on the power struggle for the gun. Immediately, the gun was disassembled and it went flying everywhere. The Warmage then punched with her now free right hand.

_**I will touch the untouchable…**_

Only to be intercepted by Fuad's left hand.

Suddenly, for the first time ever since she fought Fuad, she felt _fear_**.**

_**and I will break the unbreakable! **_

The Warmage's psionite knife was whole again as the blade was formed completely.

_**You fucker! **_

The Warmage thought to him in a mixture of anger, fear and _awe._

_**WHO THE HELL DO YOU THINK I AM?!**_

With that thought, Fuad overpowered his opponent completely and managed to bring the blade down between her left shoulder and neck. The psionite knife pierced through the energy shield, powered armor, flesh and bone like a hot knife through butter.

Suddenly, everything became deathly quiet as both combatants stared at each other. Then, for what it seemed like an eternity, Fuad declared his victory.

_**I win.**_

The Warmage chuckled in his mind before responding.

_**Hei Feng. The name's Hei Feng.**_

Fuad raised an eyebrow but decided to return the courtesy nonetheless.

_**Fuad Wahid. **_

The Warmage chuckled again.

_**I know. Funny, I didn't think it was worth remembering before. You better remember my name, fucker, because this isn't done yet. Not by a long shot. I'll give you this victory. But next time…**_

The Warmage, Hei Feng didn't finish as she dropped to her knees, causing Fuad to release his hold on the psionite knife. Her head then lolled to the front and Fuad took a few steps back until he fell on his back to the ground.

"Fuck… That… was intense!" Fuad said before fatigued overwhelmed him and he lost consciousness.

**…**

"Damn. That was an impressive show," Captain Randall said.

"Quite. Well fuck me sideways. My little sheeps actually did it!" Shepard exclaimed while running a hand through her red hair. She didn't think that they would win against Hei Feng but they did it! Granted, it wasn't much of a team effort but there was no personal glory in her team. If only one member left and they won, then it was everybody's win as well.

"You're one hell of a shepherd, Shepard," Captain Randall said while shaking his head.

"That I am," Shepard said with a manic grin.

**…**

**...**

**XCOM Database **

**- Psionic **

Psionic is the ability to manipulate _**psion **_(refer codex entry, Psion) that can be used to bend reality, use and create psionic technologies as well as affect the minds of living creatures. The term also refers to a person that has psionic capabilities. A human that has been **'awakened'** (successfully activate their psionic powers) can have access to strong, active psionic powers and are called _**psikers. **_Non-psikers does not necessarily mean that they do not have psionic powers. Non-psiker humans for example, have weak and passive psionic powers such as 'gut feeling', weak placebo and so on.

A psiker can achieve feats or abilities that are considered to be 'magic' and these abilities are very hard to replicate with current technology. There are many psionic abilities and they are categorized into different categories. Refer the codex entry **Psionic Abilities** for in depth explanation on known psionic abilities.

The existence psionic has given rise to its study; the field of psionic science. Although many 'ignorant' people (as psionic researchers would like to call them) has argued that psionic is not science. In response to this, Dr. Vahlen, one of the earliest psionic researchers, quoted _Clarke's Third Law _and Florence Ambrose's variant of the law. Dr. Vahlen even made her own quote, _"Magic is simply science that is yet to be understood,"_

Research on psionic has created many psionic devices and technology. Refer the codex entry **Psionic Technology.**

**+Psion**

Psion is a type of exotic energy. Exotic energy has properties that are either not completely understood or violates known laws of physics. In the case of psion, it violates _every known laws of physics. _This led to psionic researchers to quote _"psion live by its own rules and even then, they tend to break it." _

Despite what most people think, psion is not generated by psionic beings. They merely manipulate it, with the only difference between each psionic being is the level of control and amount of psion that can be manipulated at a time. It is unknown how or where psion comes from. Some speculate that it originates from a different dimension, or it just 'pop' into existence or that it is already there in the universe but is invisible to non-psionic beings.

Psion has many exotic properties that are not found in any other matter or energy. However, it is most famous for three properties; its **dominance over the fundamental forces** (gravity, strong nuclear, weak nuclear and electromagnetic) its **capability to transfer sentient thought and emotions **as well as that **it is exclusively psychoactive. **

The first property; the dominance over the fundamental forces is what makes telekinesis/psychokinesis possible and this allows a psiker to **influence** **reality** using only psion. On a small scale, a psiker can influence objects by overcoming the effects of gravity, allowing it to float and with enough control, even break the object to its molecular structure. On a large scale, a psiker can influence spacetime itself by creating wormholes, bending space and even teleportation.

The second property; the capability to transfer sentient thought and emotions is what makes telepathic abilities possible. A psiker can among other things, communicate with another sentient creature, transfer and share memories and emotion, share senses, mind reading, mind control and even body jacking. All of these are done without physical interaction and the use of technology.

The third property is that psion is exclusively psychoactive and this is the weirdest property of psion. In the field of psionic, psychoactive refers to the factors that affect psion. The factors are suitable brain and body structure, cognition, consciousness, psyche and mood. These factors mean that not all living sentient creatures and machines can use psion. Psychoactive factors also play a large role in affecting psionic strength.

For example, most psikers experience a drastic drop of psionic strength when experiencing 'downer' moods such as depression, fear, panic and stress. Although there are rare cases where it actually increases psionic strength (ironically, this type of psikers are nicknamed emo). This means that a psiker's psionic strength isn't absolute and can change easily.

What is perhaps the most mind boggling case of psychoactive influence on psionic is called the 'placebo' effect. Humans can 'choose' not to have psionic abilities simply by refusing to have them or not believing in them. For example, during the early years of psionic research, a test subject is made believe that his chances of having psionic ability is zero before undergoing psionic testing. As predicted, the subject failed to awaken. The subject is then told that his initial chance were faulty and that he has a very high chance of having psionic ability instead. Predictably, when going for the second psionic testing, the subject managed awaken. This experiment is repeated for 3 years and 72% of the test subjects managed to awaken when they _believe _(8% percent failure rate is because of physical condition and 20% is due to unknown factors).

However, despite the high success rate of gaining psiker status, it is easy to lose them as well. Combined with the psychoactive dependent nature of psion, it is very important for psikers to maintain their psychoactive health to ensure psionic stability. Thus, it is not surprising to see high level psikers practice meditation and other calming exercises.

Another special property of psion is that almost every material (that is known to humanity) has _zero resistance _to psion meaning that psion can go through all material and energy without difficulty. This makes defending against psion using only conventional method (such as hiding in a titanium vault) to be useless.

The second and third properties raises frustrating questions about psion. Why does it react only to the right psychoactive being? How can it transfer something that is intangible and abstract such as thoughts and memories? Where does it come from? This has led many psionic researchers to speculate that perhaps, psion is not a form of energy at all. Some speculate that psion is the souls of every creature that had lived and some even speculate that psion is a being itself.

Regardless, even after 140 years of study, the field of psionic remain as one of the weirdest and mysterious thing known and humanity had only scratched its surface. It is likely that psionic will remain an enigma for a long time unless there is input from other psionic beings other than humans.

**+Psionite**

Psionite is psion material in the form of crystalline solid or crystal. It is formed when a Psiker concentrates psion into a solid form. It in its inert state, its colour is clear with a tinge of light purple but changes into purple when it is active. Much like its energy counterpart, psionite has exotic properties not found in any other material known to humanity.

Psionite has two different states, **inert **and **active** and each exhibits different properties. In its **inert state**, psionite has the same weight as diamond of the same size **(it is unaffected by gravity in its active state)**. It is also one of the hardest material known, with it being 9 times harder than diamond. It is also the only known _perfect conductor _(has zero electrical resistance and constant magnetic flux) and has the same thermal resistance as Cydonium (once known as the alien alloy during the Ethereal War).

However, when it is exposed to psion, it enters its **active state. **In this state, psionite loses its perfect conductivity of electricity but it instead gains a number of properties. Its most unique (and important) property is that it becomes a **perfect conductor of psion **and it is the only known material capable of storing psion indefinitely. Furthermore,psionite gains a drastic increase in thermal resistance, hardiness and even _total strength _(compressive, tensile and shear). However, the increase is dependent on the amount of psion it is storing. The Ethereal Device recovered during the Ethereal War are immune to almost every kind of conventional attack. It even has survived a small singularity generated by mass effects and gravity wave generators without any damage. However, psionite is weak against psionic attacks that are intended to harm it and it is extremely vulnerable when it is inert. It can even **change shape** according to the intention of the psionic will channeled to it.

What is perhaps the strangest property of psionite is that despite being a solid object, _psionite has no observable atoms. _Even in its active state, observing psionite under microscope will only show psion energy.

Despite its amazing properties, psionite application outside the field of psionics is extremely limited. This is because only extremely skilled and dedicated Psikers can make psionite. Quality, quantity and shape depends entirely on the Psiker and this makes psionite to be rare and expensive. Furthermore, because of its psion-dependent nature, psionite is not used for non-psionic technologies.

In the field of psionic, psionite has near limitless application and is used in almost everything from communication, weapon, armor, locomotion and more. For example, because psion can transmit thought and memories and psionite can store psion, it can act as a recorder. Also, shaped psionite in the form of blade and channeled with psion can cut through almost everything.

* * *

**Author's Note: * **Mordern MECs resemble Geth Prime in build and height.

**** **The Warmage attire is similar to Tron Legacy's Rinzler except that Warmage have the tailcoat.

**Read and Review!**


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